After the speech, he was set to fly to Boston to speak to two fundraising events for the Democratic National Committee. Obama has proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, up from the current level of $7.25, which he said would lift wages for 28 million people. Three-quarters of Americans agree it should be hiked. It would immediately raise millions of people out of poverty. It would help millions more work their way out of poverty. Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-obama-touts-minimum-wage-hike-plan-in-connecticut/1865217.html

It also underscores how pressure has faded to launch bold, new attacks on federal deficits. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are dismissing President Barack Obama’s new $3.9 trillion budget as nothing more than a Democratic manifesto for this fall’s congressional campaigns, but the fiscal plan is taking hits from another quarter too anti-deficit groups. Obama on Tuesday sent lawmakers a 2015 budget top-heavy with provisions that have little chance of becoming law. They included $1 trillion in tax increases mostly on the rich and corporations http://www.obamastudentloanforgiveness.net/ and a collection of populist but mostly modest spending boosts for consumer protection, climate change research and improved technology in schools. It even trumpeted $2.2 trillion in 10-year deficit reduction, though most of the proposed savings, including fresh tax boosts plus cuts in government payments to Medicare providers, seemed long shots to make it through Congress. Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gop-pans-obamas-3-9t-213123020.html

Most notably, Obama dropped a proposal aimed at slowing the growth of Social Security payments by changing how cost-of-living increases get calculated. Obama’s current plan would cut the deficit by adjusting the way the government means-tests Medicare, requiring higher premiums for some wealthy seniors. He would include measures to force down the cost of prescription drugs, which also reduces federal spending, and would count on the deficit-reducing impact of his proposed immigration reform measure. He proposed paying for new spending a $55-billion “Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative” by closing tax loopholes used primarily by the wealthy and raising tobacco taxes. Among the tax provisions he would eliminate is the carried-interest rule, which allows some hedge fund managers to pay a lower tax rate on a significant share of their income. Source: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obama-budget-20140305,0,3023686.story

7 Senate Democrats help block Obama nominee for civil rights post

The visit shocked the crowd on Main Street, including some in the chairs at a nearby barbershop, according to a pool report on Obama’s stop. Gervais Barger of Plainville was seated at the Courtside Cuts Barber Shop on Main Street when he heard a commotion outside at lunchtime. They started seeing the motorcade, and we came outside, Barger said as he stood outside still wearing a smock and without a coat on a cold day. He said he had never seen a president before not in person. Obama had high praise for the Connecticut delegation and for the New England governors. He said he usually appears at events with only one governor, but this visit was special. Source: http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_25284684/obama-connecticut-minimum-wage-increase-is-8220-common

Adegbiles ties to the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an internationally known prisoner convicted of the 1981 murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner, had become the focus of a conservative crusade that boiled over in recent weeks. A senior aide to one of the senators who voted against the nominee said several senators offices were very angry at the White House for moving ahead with the nomination even though it could leave Democrats who are facing tough reelection races vulnerable to attack ads. Its a vote you didnt have to take. Its a 30-second ad that writes itself, said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak frankly. Administration officials pushed back late Wednesday, saying that Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/7-senate-democrats-help-block-obama-nominee-for-civil-rights-post/2014/03/05/4becad52-a48e-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html